Zeus

@AmberCrystal17, @SilverEspeon__, @SidoSido11,  @TheDragonCharizard11, @ChaoticFireBall the ride's been fun but we're getting off now.

We've tried to handle this privately with you, but you continue to be deceptive with your answers. I don't know what the real story is and I will probably never know. At this point, I don't care. Cut out the attention seeking behavior right now.

You role playing as both @SilverEspeon__ and @TheDragonCharizard11 was already annoying enough, because your story made no sense. It still makes no sense. You say you use the handle @SilverEspeon__  on many different websites, and that your brother told you about this website, and that your roommate stole your handle here to stir up drama, but the @SilverEspeon__  account was registered here on July 31, 2016, and the @TheDragonCharizard11 account wasn't created here until April 7, 2017, and the earliest Reddit post for @SilverEspeon__  is dated October 13, 2016. How can your roommate steal your account name here if you registered it several months in advance, even before the Reddit account with the same name was registered? 

Because your roommate is not real.

You've been manipulating forum members into feeling bad for you for quite some time now. You told @WhirlingBlack that @SidoSido11 is the account of your sister, and that @SidoSido11 sent threatening messages to you on the @AmberCrystal17 account as well as to other users on the forum. The lie detector test determined that this is a lie. @SidoSido11 isn't a stalker. It's you. Again. That account has never been active and it has never sent a message to anyone on this forum, yet it shares your IP. How exactly did this account harass you and other users? How many other people have you said this lie to?

You might be able to hand wave the impermanence of internet protocol addresses and fool some people by saying your family shares the same computer, but you aren't fooling me. An IP address doesn't get passed around from person to person in the fashion that would describe your usage habits. On top of that, you log in to the website using a combination of Chrome 72, your iPad, and your iPhone, and that IP address is associated with all of your alts, so I don't buy the sob story that your brother/sister/roommate is trolling on your account on your behalf. First you were at school, and now you are living at home, but your IP addresses are the same in both instances. Plus, you have a particular way of writing that lets everyone know it's you, so that's check and mate right there.

Now you're doing this same song and dance of "leaving", and then less than 24 hours later signing up with a new account called @ChaoticFireBall, which unsurprisingly shares the same IP addresses as two of your previous accounts. Is this one your "sisters" as well? Or is it your roommate? Or is your roommate your sister? Or are they all fake and is this some way for you to drum up attention to yourself, because you can't imagine a situation in your life where you aren't oppressed?
 

This is what we're going to do. You are going to pick ONE screen name, and you are going to stick with it, and if your sister/friend/roommate/pastor/parole officer/teacher creates another account on this website I'm going to ban the new account and your account off of my website permanently. I'm done with your bullshit.

And just to clarify for the third time, whatever occurs on this website under your account is your responsibility. So if your sister is responsible for one more incident that catches my ire, you will pay for it.

@AmberCrystal17, @SilverEspeon__, @SidoSido11,  @TheDragonCharizard11, @ChaoticFireBall the ride's been fun but we're getting off now.

We've tried to handle this privately with you, but you continue to be deceptive with your answers. I don't know what the real story is and I will probably never know. At this point, I don't care. Cut out the attention seeking behavior right now.

You role playing as both @SilverEspeon__ and @TheDragonCharizard11 was already annoying enough, because your story made no sense. It still makes no sense. You say you use the handle @SilverEspeon__  on many different websites, and that your brother told you about this website, and that your roommate stole your handle here to stir up drama, but the @SilverEspeon__  account was registered here on July 31, 2016, and the @TheDragonCharizard11 account wasn't created here until April 7, 2017, and the earliest Reddit post for @SilverEspeon__  is dated October 13, 2016. How can your roommate steal your account name here if you registered it several months in advance, even before the Reddit account with the same name was registered? 

Because your roommate is not real.

You've been manipulating forum members into feeling bad for you for quite some time now. You told @WhirlingBlack that @SidoSido11 is the account of your sister, and that @SidoSido11 sent threatening messages to you on the @AmberCrystal17 account as well as to other users on the forum. The lie detector test determined that this is a lie. @SidoSido11 isn't a stalker. It's you. Again. That account has never been active and it has never sent a message to anyone on this forum, yet it shares your IP. How exactly did this account harass you and other users? How many other people have you said this lie to?

You might be able to hand wave the impermanence of internet protocol addresses and fool some people by saying your family shares the same computer, but you aren't fooling me. An IP address doesn't get passed around from person to person in the fashion that would describe your usage habits. On top of that, you log in to the website using a combination of Chrome 72, your iPad, and your iPhone, and that IP address is associated with all of your alts, so I don't buy the sob story that your brother/sister/roommate is trolling on your account on your behalf. First you were at school, and now you are living at home, but your IP addresses are the same in both instances. Plus, you have a particular way of writing that lets everyone know it's you, so that's check and mate right there.

Now you're doing this same song and dance of "leaving", and then less than 24 hours later signing up with a new account called @ChaoticFireBall, which unsurprisingly shares the same IP addresses as two of your previous accounts. Is this one your "sisters" as well? Or is it your roommate? Or is your roommate your sister? Or are they all fake and is this some way for you to drum up attention to yourself, because you can't imagine a situation in your life where you aren't oppressed?
 

This is what we're going to do. You are going to pick ONE screen name, and you are going to stick with it, and if your sister/friend/roommate/pastor/parole officer/teacher creates another account on this website I'm going to ban the new account and your account off of my website permanently. I'm done with your bullshit.

And since you have a bunch of accounts, I'm reposting this a bunch of times so you get the message.

@AmberCrystal17, @SilverEspeon__, @SidoSido11,  @TheDragonCharizard11, @ChaoticFireBall the ride's been fun but we're getting off now.

We've tried to handle this privately with you, but you continue to be deceptive with your answers. I don't know what the real story is and I will probably never know. At this point, I don't care. Cut out the attention seeking behavior right now.

You role playing as both @SilverEspeon__ and @TheDragonCharizard11 was already annoying enough, because your story made no sense. It still makes no sense. You say you use the handle @SilverEspeon__  on many different websites, and that your brother told you about this website, and that your roommate stole your handle here to stir up drama, but the @SilverEspeon__  account was registered here on July 31, 2016, and the @TheDragonCharizard11 account wasn't created here until April 7, 2017, and the earliest Reddit post for @SilverEspeon__  is dated October 13, 2016. How can your roommate steal your account name here if you registered it several months in advance, even before the Reddit account with the same name was registered? 

Because your roommate is not real.

You've been manipulating forum members into feeling bad for you for quite some time now. You told @WhirlingBlack that @SidoSido11 is the account of your sister, and that @SidoSido11 sent threatening messages to you on the @AmberCrystal17 account as well as to other users on the forum. The lie detector test determined that this is a lie. @SidoSido11 isn't a stalker. It's you. Again. That account has never been active and it has never sent a message to anyone on this forum, yet it shares your IP. How exactly did this account harass you and other users? How many other people have you said this lie to?

You might be able to hand wave the impermanence of internet protocol addresses and fool some people by saying your family shares the same computer, but you aren't fooling me. An IP address doesn't get passed around from person to person in the fashion that would describe your usage habits. On top of that, you log in to the website using a combination of Chrome 72, your iPad, and your iPhone, and that IP address is associated with all of your alts, so I don't buy the sob story that your brother/sister/roommate is trolling on your account on your behalf. First you were at school, and now you are living at home, but your IP addresses are the same in both instances. Plus, you have a particular way of writing that lets everyone know it's you, so that's check and mate right there.

Now you're doing this same song and dance of "leaving", and then less than 24 hours later signing up with a new account called @ChaoticFireBall, which unsurprisingly shares the same IP addresses as two of your previous accounts. Is this one your "sisters" as well? Or is it your roommate? Or is your roommate your sister? Or are they all fake and is this some way for you to drum up attention to yourself, because you can't imagine a situation in your life where you aren't oppressed?
 

This is what we're going to do. You are going to pick ONE screen name, and you are going to stick with it, and if your sister/friend/roommate/pastor/parole officer/teacher creates another account on this website I'm going to ban the new account and your account off of my website permanently. I'm done with your bullshit.

To a limited extent, it is useful to separate the art from the artist. There are many musicians that make good music but aren't good people, and I honestly don't give a shit about any of that that unless said musician does something extremely awful, like rape or murder. I don't support musicians because I like them as people (although that certainly helps); I support musicians because they make music I like. If you like YOHIO and you like his music, and you can't find anything that would convince you otherwise, then that is all you need to know.

Besides, we are all fans and we are all equally in the dark about any given musician's true nature. Unless you know that person personally, there's no way to tell for sure what kind of person he is. Rumors can start because he is an asshole all the time, or a rumor could have started because he was having a bad day and directed his anger in the wrong direction at the wrong time. You will never know for sure reading comments on the internet. Hell, people are routinely surprised when acquaintances and friends get ousted for crimes or seedy behavior, always quick to drop the line about how they "didn't know" they were capable of such behaviors. The only person that knows how good of a person YOHIO is is YOHIO. 

Trying to quantify how "good" a person is and how much they should be "supported" with little to no supporting evidence is a slippery slope into fascism. 


 

I don't understand what the point of forming a limited time unit is. Maybe someone can inform me what they have to gain from this besides publicity.

Her solo pop career didn't work so she's back to making rock music with the two most invisible members of the previous unit? So not surprised. I could tell for a while she was trying to make an exit from that stagnating band, but ironically her departure breathed new life into the unit before all the members went their own ways. I also thought "XYZ" and "good bye" were jabs not so subtly aimed at her, so I'm surprised anyone from that band was willing to collaborate with her in a new project.

On 1/2/2019 at 5:00 PM, monkeybanana4 said:

I could be wrong, but I also feel that the burgeoning interest in anime and/or Japanese culture around this time contributed in creating the perfect setting. At least, that was the case for me.

  

You're not wrong. I would peg the growing interest in anime and Japanese culture to the late 90's and early 2000's. I was too young to notice at the time, but thinking back on it, it was my dad who introduced me to Dragonball Z. He heard about it from his coworkers, all about 30 or 40, so clearly its influence had infiltrated my country by the time I was 5 or 6. Visual kei jumped on the bandwagon a few years after that, because the first time I ever heard about it was in 1999, but it was defo underground at the time and in my entire life I only talked about visual kei in person to seven or eight people. Interest in visual kei spiked around 2003-2004 and reached critical mass around 2007-2009. These days, it's almost impossible to find new fans in the flesh.

I won't even try to analyze the reasons why interest died off since I'm not certified in it, but what I can say is that at some point interest in Japanese music fell off completely. I have friends who will admit to watching anime, playing JRPGs, going to anime conventions and cosplaying, but not one of them talks about listening to the music.  If I were pressed to give a reason for this, I would point to K-Pop. I know many a fan who jumped ship to K-Pop once the craze died down, and to be honest it feels more socially acceptable to like K-Pop than visual kei these days because one is more commercialized than the other. To J- and K-music outsiders, I can see how the distinction between "J-Rock" and "K-Pop" is irrelevant when they don't understand the words anyway, so I'd say that for many people K-Pop fills that musical niche for their interest in ~exotic Asian musics~ where J-Music should be.

A lot of my fondness for this era is because this was the music I listened to in my formative years and I will always have a soft spot for it, but I'd be lying if I said 2008 wasn't the best time ever to be a visual kei fan. It was.

1 hour ago, CAT5 said:

@Zeus So I linked this thread in the plug session last night and I think we may have triggered @fictioninhope and @doombox's past trauma of requiring them to write about イリヤ -ilya- for their ORZ application

 

@platy & @Zeus - "Sink" is hands down one of my favorite VK songs ever. I'm pretty sure I first heard 9GBO in 2009, as The Gazette's singles leading up to DIM had reignited my interest in VK and they were one of the recommendations I received at the time.

 

@Zeus - That RENTRER EN SOI blurb is so bittersweet for me. Although I disliked the S/T and wasn't heads over heels with The Bottom of Chaos, I felt the band were starting to slowly regain their identity by the time Megiddo game out. I felt like with perhaps the next release, they would have fully integrated that heavier sound with their earlier one. It's a shame because they went out with so much untapped potential.

 

Or maybe it was for the best? Bearing in mind the trajectory of Satsuki's solo career and all....^_________^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I still laugh at how I used to give this album to everyone to review. I've never written an official review of イリヤ -ilya-  because the album is so hard to digest, every time I come back to it I find new things to like and new things to dislike. I simply enjoy watching people struggle to describe it. It's a damn shame that Mutyumu did nothing with themselves after イリヤ -ilya- . Everyone but the vocalist and guitarist left, and even if the composer is the same the musicians aren't, and the piano is one of the most prominent aspects of イリヤ -ilya- , so I think their 3rd album was going to suffer unless they found an equal or better replacement. They also have a bit of a X JAPAN thing going, with a revival of activities announcement followed by a lot of silence since 2013. This might be one of the last times we'll ever seriously talk about Mutyumu, so I'm glad @The Reverend was able to contribute a blurb.

I also agree that given time, RENTRER EN SOI would have found their balance. I linked CRUSADE because it has the best balance of both of their sides. They have a few other singles of that nature too worth linking. BAPTISM and DAMNATION are pretty terrible though

While writing up  blurbs for this list, we came to the conclusion that 2008 was a golden year for visual kei. So many good things were released or happening during that time. This took so long to come out because every time one of us was done, another person snuck in a blurb or two. If we didn't cut ourselves off, I'm sure we would have wrote a bit about everything released that year. I'm not expecting 2009's retrospective to have this many blurbs.

I hope I can hear this one day.

I didn't even know that rumor was a thing 😮

So I guess Ki$aki has that hu$h money, because it's been two months and I haven't heard anything.

18 hours ago, Prophet said:

2018 and still sad. One of the most heart-wrenching disband news for me, aside of Deluhi. I wish they reunite or something. Hell I dont even know what each member is doing or in what band at the moment.

Well we definitely know Natsuki is Mr. Avocado Farmer

6 hours ago, chipathy said:

If record labels help cover some expenses how do bands like kizu, dimlim, and mamireta start off. They're the only bands on their label so it seems like they are their own label as far as I can tell

Here is one way:

1. Start band and label. Apply for a loan to fund label. Can be bank, can be from a sempai, can be from parents, etc.

2. Budget real good.

3. Use some label funds for band activities. Use profits from band activities to pay back those internal loans.

4. Bust ass working hard doing your day and night jobs.

If you do it right, you could earn back the money you put into your band to pay off the first loan, and then your label is ready for the next step. I suspect these bands that run their own label are also putting up personal money to fill the gap.

Let's also not forget about some more explosive outbursts like Ryohei from Kyogetsu. I wrote about it here if you want some more details, but safe to say that it's an open secret that going visual kei is a money pit and it can be seen as shameful to discuss it brazenly.

Because I'm not Japanese, I took the time to convert the yen into freedom and equality units.

 

MV ~ 500.000 ¥ / $4,400.67 / €3,882.55

Costumes ~ 700.000¥ / $6,160.86 / €5,435.49

Foto shooting ~ 100.000¥ / $880.12 / €776.49 

CD pressing ~ 100.000¥ / $880.12 / €776.49 

Recording ~ 100.000¥ / $880.12 / €776.49 

Hair styling ~ 1x 20.000¥ / $176.06 / €155.31

Studio ~ 1x 10.000¥ / $88.01 / €77.65 

Travel cost ~ 200.000¥ / $1760.59 /  €1,553.43

Flyer/print ~ 100.000¥ / $880.12 / €776.49 

Website 150.000¥ / $1,320.47 /  €1,164.82

Total: $17427.14 / €15,372.22

Some of these numbers should be interpreted carefully. I added up all the values, so the true cost of hair styling and studio isn't reflected here because those are repeated over and over again. For the studio, is this cost per hour or per session? It's way more expensive if it's $88 an hour. I also find that the expenses for hair styling are pretty expensive relative to what it should cost, so I wonder if this is a compound cost or an estimation of some sort. I also assume somethings like flyer / print, CD pressing, and photo shoots include the costs not just to produce the medium but to pay for the services and distribution. Something similar for the website too; I doubt most of these guys are doing all the maintenance work for it, so they probably pay someone to keep it up for them. A thousand dollars for a website doesn't make sense. A thousand dollars to create an interactive and impressive website quickly is still too much. But to do all that and keep it maintained makes sense. Travel costs include not just plane tickets, but moving all of the musical equipment and paying the roadies to do it for you. I wonder if these costs are per band member or costs for all members as a whole, which could explain some of these high costs. I don't think this is everything, because I've heard stories about how bands have to front money in order to be able to perform. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard about it more than once, especially when bands have to front the difference if attendance was below projected amounts. There's nothing here about the cost to perform concerts or produce merchandise. And finally, I don't think the band is paying all of the costs, just a majority of it. So I'm comfortable saying that for your average band, the label would front about 30% and the band members together would front the remaining 70%. So the new adjusted total is:

Total: $12,199.00 / €10,760.40

If I were to pretend that I was a visual kei musician, and I was in charge of budgeting for my band, and we had to make some hard choices about what we could afford and not afford, I'd honestly take a look at the hair styling and costume costs, the studio costs, and the photo shoots. I think the hair styling is egregiously expensive for no real reason, compounded by the fact that it would be multiple visits. I'd only get my hair done when I absolutely need to and show up to the studio and to record looking like a regular guy. I'd try to do band practice somewhere cheaper, because those $90 visits add up fast. Travel cost is non-negotiable. Photo shoots can double for both cheki and promotional materials, so I think that's the cost of doing business. The cost of the costumes is right about where I expected it to be if you budget for five people, and budget considering every time you record a new release you have a new look. But costumes put the visual in visual kei, so it is hard to argue to take them out. I honestly would have to argue if costumes should cost more than the music video, and would try to find some way to put even more money into those, because that also puts the visual in visual kei, and shoot for making less music videos overall if I can keep each one to a higher standard of quality. I honestly don't know how much of a presence a website would give my band at the start, and would probably double down on traditional social media tools at first to go viral and cheapen costs there, or maybe latch on to my label's bigger website and push that way. Or maybe both, because more exposure doesn't hurt and word of mouth is free. I'd also be the ultimate cheap and lazy bastard and press all my CDs themselves to start, and then distribute them at lives. 

Overall, I can understand a bit better how difficult it can be to get started if the funds aren't green. 

23 hours ago, LIDL said:

That is so cool. 👏👏👏 Farmer Natsuki.

 

Esp since Avocado is popular fruit there. Probably more steady flow of income too than being indie bandomen 👌

 

Also, apparently his real name is Kunihito Sekine (関根邦仁)

SHHH! Don't you know that if you say a band man's name three times they can never return to the land of visual kei1?!?!

In all seriousness though, -OZ- was one of those bands that I thought was at the "top" of the indie circuit. Learning that farming avocados is more consistent and lucrative than being an indie visual kei band man is a sobering feeling...

2 hours ago, NICKT said:

Friend of mine was recently in Japan and was watching a cooking show and Natsuki showed up.
Apparently he now owns or works on an avocado farm, if I remember correctly?

Not that I don't believe you, but I do need a source for this.

Despite the optimism in posts above me about this announcement, I'm less than excited. Netflix may not do as bad of a job as previous studios have when adapting anime to live action films, but the debacle with Ciri in The Witcher adaptation proves to me that they're capable of losing the plot.

It's like the media doesn't learn it's lesson. I don't even care that Netflix is behind the helm. Time and time again, whenever they adapt an anime to a live action film the movie loses a lot of what made the anime special. I'm not just referencing Hollywood because there are plenty of Japanese live-action adaptations that suck too. It's the power inherent in the medium along with the ability to more easily suspend my belief.

I've already lost my horse in this race because Hollywood adapted and defiled Ghost in the Shell. Watanabe better splurge on a katana engraved with the words "no cuts" to make sure Netflix gets the message this time, although I'm under no delusions that someone at Netflix won't find some way to defile the story and get fans pants in a twist. 

Don't disappoint me guys.

21 hours ago, Saishu said:

Zetsuentai is a perfect example of why DEG should abandon trying to capture lightning in a bottle again. They know Vinushka is a great song, but this is the second time they’ve tried to do it again, and each time it’s less effective. Zetsuentai literally sounds like someone said “we need a long song”.  Like it didn’t turn out that way naturally, it was planned. 

I would have to agree. Are you counting the first time as  "Diabolos" or the rerecording of "MACABRE"?

On 10/25/2018 at 5:28 PM, hatred000 said:

My personal opinion:  it ' s not uroboros

End.

I'm split on this opinion and here is why.

UROBOROS is a good album, almost god tier by Dir en grey standards, but that album also came out when I was in high school. It's been almost ten years (yikes) since UROBOROS dropped, and they've grown out of the proto-prog roots that they laid down on that album into a genre-defying juggernaut that escapes classical definitions. They already tried to go back and make it better, and that just made the album worse for a lot of fans, me included. They tried to one-up it with DUM SPIRO SPERO and that wasn't 100% effective. UROBOROS is up there with GAUZE and VULGAR for me because it's a point in their career that they hadn't reached up until that point and won't go back to, so I try not to get fixated on how "not-UROBOROS" one of their new releases are for me. I could potentially end up missing out on something awesome, like stalwart La:Sadie's fans who couldn't get with GAUZE, or visual kei fans who literally exploded at the announcement of six UGLY/VULGAR.

1 hour ago, VESSMIER said:

PS: I don’t agree that Devote My Life is “unlistenable”. Sure, the guitars sound punishing and harsh but I see it as a fit representation of the lyrical content. Plus after all this build-up of excruciating tension during the verses, the chorus/breakdown with its wide bed of bass and gutturals opens the whole thing up and creates a very satisfying dynamic imo.

Maybe I'm getting old, but whenever I listen to this track at over 40% volume the high notes just become piercing and hurt to listen to.

There's a certain sense of irony in that NB went vk to get paid and they didn't get paid...

| Dir en grey's tenth album is something special indeed.

Few artists can bring the scene together and elicit responses from everyone the way that Dir en grey can. They can make you pause your habitual listening routines to check out their newest single or album, even if you don't like them. This is because Dir en grey is one of the few bands where we can sense the progression and self-improvement from release to release. I don't think that Dir en grey aspires to impress anyone but themselves from three years ago, and now more than ever I see and feel a band that has graduated from copying trends to setting them. As a concept, and after listening to the album several times, I believe The Insulated World refers directly to them, their view on the world, and the inspiration for where the music they wish to create comes from.

The Insulated World feels like a journey into oneself, and the album feels separated into two parts. The first half of the album feels like a turbulent descent into madness, while the second half feels like the madness has yielded to tranquility as the listener floats towards personal understanding. I prefer the second half to the first half. This is a far cry from literally every other album of theirs, where tracks were arranged haphazardly and the experience suffers for it. I can hear various influences from each of their previous eras and albums - some more than others - but one of the most redeeming points about The Insulated World is that it doesn't sound like anything in particular.

In the past, I've felt that Dir en grey bit off more than they could chew, and failed to deliver on their own expectations. I felt this most when listening to DUM SPIRO SPERO, where the band used progressive elements for the sake of being progressive. The Insulated World has the progressive elements applied more sensibly, similar to ARCHE. Songs morph and change direction on a whim, but there are hooks and motifs that the band returns to that gives each song coherency. Vocalist Kyo reminds us once again that he's the king of vocal manipulation - just in case you had doubts - but he's embraced his mid range more. Focusing on the extremes of his vocal techniques leaves an immediate and lasting impression at the expense of it sounding very binary. I prefer the vocal extremes for specific emotional climaxes and using other vocal techniques for specific feelings at the appropriate times. "Values of Madness" is the best example of what I am describing, where we get screeching, rapping, singing, and more in a compact four minutes. The re-recording of "The Deeper Vileness" is another great example, and also highlights how well some of the ideas they explored in The Marrow of a Bone translate into their new style ten years later.

Complaints about the terrible production job for the singles "Utafumi" and "Ningen wo kaburu" were founded and make more sense in hindsight, with the new versions sounding less congested. Die and Kaoru no longer compete with Toshiya for total control of the low end frequency, Shinya's drum kit sounds less robotic, Kyo doesn't feel tacked on top of the mix, and there's plenty of room left for the guitar distortion techniques and electronic samples to breathe. For the most part, I like the tone chosen for the guitar and the way everything comes together in each song, and I would rank this among both their best and least obnoxiously mixed albums to date. I wish they could get their singles to this quality.

The Insulated World is not a perfect release. "Devote My Life" is not listenable due to the piercing, unrelenting tone of the guitar. Sticking it in the second slot does a lot to turn away people who only have once chance to give Dir en grey. They should have gone with a guitar tone closer to "Downfall". "Ranunculus", while a great song and a good note to end the album on, has an atmosphere which doesn't fit with the album. I get the impression this track was conceived either very early or very late in the production cycle, because it stands well on its own. I also am unable to find the hook in the album opus, "絶縁体" (Zetsusentai), which I find difficult to wrap my head around. They've done this style of track more effectively with "Vinushka" and even "Diabolos", and it doesn't hold a candle to the pure atmosphere of "MACABRE". Speaking of Macabre, I also find the new version of "理由" (Riyuu) slightly inferior to the original version. The cover of the song does justice to the original by not straying too much from the melody, but they reined in the emotion of the song and the guitar solo with only a cleaner sound to compensate,  and the original version of the song sold itself on its emotion. They didn't ruin it, but they didn't improve it much. The new version of "鬼眼" (Kigan) falls into the same camp, but the much better production values edges it out ahead in the end. For the record, I much rather these safe reinterpretations than ones that butcher the song beyond recognition.

These interpretations are subject to change as I spend more time with The Insulated World, and perhaps catch them live one day to experience these songs in person. Even a month later, I still think I wrote this review prematurely, as there are songs still growing on me and others that I am unsure if I like or not. I am pleased overall with how this album turned out, and I can see myself listening to this album in a few years without the songs wearing thin. Dir en grey did well, and this is an album I can recommend to both long time fans and the curious, but if ARCHE did nothing for you then this won't either.

Support the artist!

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